RICHARD KAY: Andrea Riseborough's out of the Shadows

Rising star: Actress Andrea Riseborough, shortly to film with Tom Cruise, says her quest for Hollywood stardom has not been without sacrifice

Shadow Dancer actress Andrea Riseborough, shortly to film with Tom Cruise, says her quest for Hollywood stardom has not been without sacrifice.

‘I’m often terribly homesick,’ Andrea tells me at Esquire’s pre-Bafta Rising Star nominees party at the Savoy. ‘I’ve had to spend a lot of time away from home because I have quite a few films coming out.’

Geordie Andrea, 31, now lives on the other side of the Atlantic in a remote log cabin on the side of an Idaho mountain with American-born model and artist Joe Appel.

‘Sadly I don’t have my own home in England any more,’ she says. ‘I hate being apart from Joe and he tries to come with me whenever he can, but at the same time I also miss my family here.’

The privately educated beauty made a name for herself playing Margaret Thatcher in the TV drama The Long Walk To Finchley. Since then she has won a hat-full of awards and beat off competition from actresses such as Kate Beckinsale to appear with Cruise in the sci-fi flick Oblivion.

‘Of course I’m excited but there is nothing I like better than escaping to be with Joe in the mountains — it’s just us and the stars,’ she sighs.

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Euro-fanatic Lord Heseltine couldn’t resist his pet subject at a gala dinner for Chinese New Year. He told a gathering of 400 at the Dorchester:

‘I know nothing about you, your business, your markets or indeed the Chinese. However, I can tell you this: the Chinese take a very long-term view. They plan for 20 or 25 years. Unlike us in Britain.

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‘And if we want to be successful, there is no point saying let’s just export goods to China. We have to succeed in our domestic market first. And when I say domestic market I mean Europe. That is where our future lies — Europe!’ At which point an audible groan went up. ‘Poor Hezza, sighs one Eurosceptic guest. ‘He still doesn’t get it.’

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How Andrew scored a winner

Laid low by two back operations to free a trapped nerve, Andrew Lloyd Webber has not been idle.

Recuperating at Sydmonton, his Hampshire home, with his wife Madeleine, Lord Lloyd-Webber has continued to work on his musical about the Profumo affair.

He has also finished a song with Goldfinger lyricist Leslie Bricusse, the result of a bet by Sir Michael Caine. Although Andrew and Leslie are friends, they had never collaborated.

Bet: Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber, with wife Madeleine, has continued to work on his musical about the Profumo affair

But that all changed over lunch with Caine. ‘I said to Leslie: “You give me a great title and I will write a song,” ’ says Lloyd Webber. ‘Michael then bet us that we wouldn’t come up with anything.

‘Leslie immediately came up with the title, The Perfect Song, and I wrote the melody on the way home in the taxi, emailed it to Leslie and he wrote the lyrics in a day.

‘I happened to run into Michael Ball at a Downing Street reception and he asked me if I had anything new for his album.’

The album with the song on is out at the end of the month.

Duke returns to his wife - and his castle

While
the collapse of the marriage of disgraced Chris Huhne and his wife
Vicky was so brutally aired this week, I have news of how another
high-profile couple have put their differences behind them.

Two
years after I revealed their split, there has been an unexpected
rapprochement between the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk. To the delight of
their five children and many friends, the couple are together again
under the same roof.

In their case, I am told, absence really did make the heart grow fonder.

Edward
Fitzalan-Howard, 56, the country’s premier duke and most senior lay
member of the Roman Catholic Church in Britain, moved out of historic
Arundel Castle, West Sussex, to roost at their London address.

Then,
late last year, he and his estranged wife Georgina, 51, were reunited
on the skiing slopes. The duchess left Britain for an extended trip to
Switzerland and it was there, in Klosters, that she and her husband
rekindled their love. ‘It was a clear case of the mountain air weaving
its magic,’ says a friend.

Last
month, they returned to Arundel to resume their marriage. ‘It was
always a shock when they split. They seemed the perfect couple,’ the
friend adds.

Ampleforth and
Oxford-educated Edward married Georgina 26 years ago in front of 800
guests, including the late Princess of Wales. At the time of their
split, they issued a statement saying they had decided on a trial
separation but made it clear no one else was involved.

The
Queen was informed because the Duke’s role as Earl Marshal means he is
responsible for organising all state occasions, including the State
Opening of Parliament — he is one of two officials who precede the
monarch walking backwards.

When
Prince William and Kate Middleton married in 2011 the Duke did not go
to the wedding to avoid any embarrassment because of the separation.

Now
they are back together and Georgina has great plans for the gardens. A
guest at a recent Arundel house party tells me: ‘They are clearly living
as man and wife again and seem very happy.

Georgina was talking about the gardens and interior decorations she wants to do.’

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Eat your heart out Banksy! Property entrepreneur Simon Lyons is capitalising on the allure of street art by commissioning artists to paint on the hoardings covering his building works.

His latest project — a £3.5 million five-storey development in Notting Hill’s Portobello Road — includes paintings by Birmingham artist Laura Tinald, 27. Says Simon, grandson of the late financier and philanthropist Sir Jack Lyons: ‘There’s nothing more ugly than building works.

‘I’ve decided to use aspiring artists for all my building projects in future, not least because it gives them a chance to exhibit their works.’

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Grumblings on Mustique, where the red carpet has been rolled out for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. ‘I have met William and Kate a number of times here and they’re absolutely charming, but they are totally unaware of the measures put in place for their protection,’ says one resident.

‘A lot of places are off-limits and restaurants like the Cotton House and Firefly are not an enjoyable experience with all the officialdom around. It is such a nuisance. Mustique is a special, safe place, quiet, tranquil and laid-back, but all that charm disappears when the security for William and Kate is in place.’

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For years they were political foes, and it seems the passage of time has not softened attitudes.

These days, Labour’s former deputy leader Roy Hattersley is president of the Sir Richard Arkwright’s Masson Mills Band in Derbyshire while ex Tory minister Edwina Currie holds the same title with the neighbouring Tideswell Male Voice Choir. The protagonists regularly meet at functions where the band and the choir are performing together.

According to Edwina, whose husband John is a baritone in the choir, she and Roy never speak. At the Paddy Power political book awards, Edwina tells me: ‘Roy and I meet from time to time at various musical events. He hates me.

‘I sometimes do the honours when he is there and make reference to him but he just sits there glowering at me.’

Lord Hattersley, 80, makes clear his stance in a review of her political diaries in next month’s Oldie magazine.

Mocking a 1988 diary entry — ‘I will have a crack at the leadership as soon as I can,’ — he writes: ‘[It] is the best joke in the whole book.’

Edwina’s reaction? ‘And Roy never said that in his whole political career.’